Driving Lessons
by Answerthecall
Summary: One Shot. Sideswipe learns the hard, as well as humiliating, way why no one should ever give in to teaching Prowl's newly adopted son how to drive.


A/N: Just a little one-shot for the heck of it. Came up with this earlier today. It takes place after the events of "Fate and Its Mysterious Ways" and a little before the story is picked up again in "The Long Road to Happily Ever After". But you don't have to read either to really understand this one-shot. Just know that the characters live on a base in a new city built just outside the ruins of Chicago, known as "New Chicago".

A/N #2: Forgive the deletion, then repost, had some edits I forgot to make.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the character Jeff Prowler, obviously.

...

"Come on, Sides, please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Prowl will murder me if you got hurt."

"Pleasssseeeeeeee?"

Sideswipe could have flicked the seventeen year old if he didn't enjoy his life. Jeffrey Prowler had not even been officially a full-time member of the Autobot base for more than a month, and he was already asking this much out of him. It was true, given the child of any other human or Autobot asking to be taught to drive, he would have immediately leaped at the chance to get off base and kill time. But this wasn't just any child, this was the adoptive human child of _Prowl_, a mech he had on many occasions seen the angry side of, and had no intention of seeing for yet another time. "Kid, you don't even have a permit." Sideswipe grunted "I like you and all, but I am not going to be responsible for any damage you may sustain." He noted.

Jeff crossed his arms, and blew a bang of his brown hair from his eyes. Ever since his adoption by Prowl had been made official, this seemed to happen. Most mech's feared getting on his father's bad side, and as a result, most of them avoided going too far with what they did with Jeff. "Jeez, you won't do it, Sunny won't do it..." Jeff shook his head "You both have turned to a couple of pansies, I swear."

"I have not!"

"Prove it." Jeff replied smugly.

The silver mech grunted at the human slightly, putting his hands on his hips. Jeff got used to this pose, as many of the Autobots got the same look when they were growing tired or annoyed of him. "Haven't you been having issues with your asthma lately?" Jeff was silent at that "Exactly, if you had an attack out there, Primus only knows what could go wrong." He noted.

"I have my inhaler." Jeff grunted "Stop treating me like a frickin' two year old, Sides."

Sideswipe took a deep breath, looking down at the young human. Though a part of him wanted to just give in if only to shut the young man up, he also didn't want to cause trouble on-base. It was hard enough keeping Jeff out of the hands of Decepticons, they all at least knew what to do in that situation if that arose. But he had no clue what to do with an organic if Jeff ended up in the situation he worried about. Yet ultimately, Sideswipe took a deep breath. "And you have your inhaler?" Sideswipe questioned with a "huff", Jeff nodded "If you scratch my paint, you're a dead man." He noted.

As Sideswipe transformed down, it was not hard to believe that Jeff was giddy as a school girl. Sideswipe, however, simply wanted to offline himself by the time they were out of the base. New Chicago was a busy city, and teaching someone with ADHD such as Jeff was far from an easy task. "Ease up on the gas, kid." Sideswipe noted, you do realize you just ran a stop sign." Sideswipe had to take control at least three times "Primus almighty, kid. Will you learn a little faster?"

"You haven't done anything to teach me other than bark orders!"

It was official, son of Prowl or not, Sideswipe _was_ going to slap this kid upside the head when they got back to base. But of course, it was his mistake of taking control while driving that caused the only trouble they got. Sideswipe couldn't register what exactly had happened at the intersection, but upon the feeling of being t-boned, he felt himself flipping over onto his hood. His first thought was simply to get Jeff out of the situation, slowly transforming around him, he hit the ground with a loud thud, creating a small crater._  
_

He heard alarms going off all around, but it wasn't the first thing that grabbed his attention. Jeff's breathing had slowed, reduced to weazing and choking, and followed by a large stream of vomit hitting his optic. "Jeff? JEFF!?" Sideswipe panicked "Primus, I'll be with you in a minute man!" Sideswipe set Jeff down, his holoform quickly appearing as he grabbed the inhaler from Jeff's pocket "Kid, if you die on me I am going to flay your aft alive." He noted.

It took several puffs of medicine from Jeff's inhaler before his airway cleared and his breathing resumed. Yet, this was the least of the Autobot's worries. The boy looked like he'd been through hell, banged up, battered, and having several scratches all over. "And you say I'm a bad driver." Jeff smirked a bit as Sideswipe growled quietly "What? That was totally not _my _fault." He noted.

"Your father isn't gonna care." Sideswipe replied "Between my dents, your attack, and the shape we're both in. We'll be lucky if we live to see tomorrow." He grunted.

Not even the damage repair bill he was about to be slapped with was going to compare to the pain of discussing this with Prowl.

...

In the year that he had been there, Jeff had never seen Prowl glitch. That morning was the exception. Jeff had to stifle laughter at the sparks that, quite literally, flew from Prowl's head. Anyone would find it funny though, Jeff would later try to argue, as it was like something out of a cartoon. "A fifteen car pile-up, Sideswipe!?" Prowl finally snapped "What in the name of Primus were you thinking!?" He noted.

"Your human child can be very persuasive when he wants to be." Sideswipe replied, attempting humor.

The sound of Prowl's fist against Sideswipe's jaw nearly deafened Jeff. Prowl put his hands on his hips, and gave the darkest glare possible. "He is barely seventeen fragging years old. I expect _him_ to make stupid decisions." Prowl pointed to Jeff "You on the other hand should known better. At the very least a LITTLE better than that." There was a lot of loud cursing in Cybertronian "I'm half tempted to tear your head right off your shoulders." He noted.

Jeff felt bad, or would have, if it had not been Sideswipe's doing that caused the accident. "To be fair, I didn't even play a role in the accident. He's the one that took control of the car." Jeff nodded to Sideswipe "I mean seriously, how do you crash a car by turning left? I ran a stop sign and I still-" The leer Prowl gave at that comment made him back down "I mean... Uh... Heh heh... What stop sign?" He then added "I'm sure Ratchet should look at my damage and all." He said as he stood up.

"Good, that means we can discuss your punishment for driving without a permit in private."

Jeff groaned as his adoptive father said that, wishing he hadn't. As Prowl returned his gaze to Sideswipe, who only smirked smugly a little bit. To say the least, Prowl was less than pleased with that reaction, shaking his head slowly. "And as for _your_ punishment." Prowl began, staring at him "I think I have the perfect punishment for you already planned." Prowl noted "Tell me, Sides, do you like your alternate form?" He questioned.

"Of course, it's sexy." Sideswipe replied proudly.

"Good."

As Prowl opened up a panel in Sideswipe's back, the mech had a very bad feeling about what was about to happen. "Prowl, what are you doing?" He questioned "Why is my body mass changing?" He questioned.

"You'll see."

Sideswipe did not like the sound of that.

...

The next morning, freshly grounded for the next three weeks, Jeff found himself bored out of his mind. He was silent as he seated himself on the couch in the lobby of the Autobot base. At first, Jeff didn't recognize the hot pink, beat up Corvette that drove in for several moments. The corvette itself looked ancient and in desperate need of repair. So when the car transformed, Jeff couldn't help but nearly split his gut laughing. The hot pink Sideswipe turning to Jeff with a look that stated loud and clear "I'm going to kill you.". "Laugh it up, Jeff." Sideswipe grimaced "I got this for a month. But guess who's giving you a ride to that midnight showing you and Brent are going to in four weeks?" He questioned.

"I don't really care." Jeff admitted "I can make an excuse to my friends, I'm not worried." He then chuckled a little "And don't you worry either Sides." Jeff tried to contain his laughter "I'm sure people will be able to tell you and Arcee apart." He snickered, before bursting out into even harder laughter.

As Sideswipe left the laughing boy's presence, he reminded himself to make sure his latest prank on Prowl was worse than usual. And also put a silent reminder to never allow his son near his drivers seat ever again.


End file.
